Labour accused of hiding scandal – and 40,000 could needlessly die | Politics | News
Labor has been accused of engaging in “creative accounting” and “smoke and mirrors” rather than delivering on its campaign promise to end the postcode lottery when it comes to potentially life-saving services for identifying and treating osteoporosis. Slow progress on ensuring everyone has access to “broken contact services” (FLS) means implementation could take 38 years and 40,000 people could die needlessly, campaigners say.
The government faced challenge in the Lords over its commitment to ensure FLS is available in every part of the country by 2030. Health Minister Baroness Merron has claimed that 23 of England’s 25 newly restructured Integrated Care Board (ICB) areas now include at least one FLS.
The Royal Osteoporosis Society (ROS) says the statistic gives a misleading impression as “the administrative map of the NHS has changed” but “the essential service footprint has remained virtually unchanged”. It is claimed that since the Labor Party came to power, only 4,500 more patients have received treatment in England than the 119,000 population that cannot receive services. Around half of NHS trusts in England still lack an FLS to check for osteoporosis when someone first presents with a fracture.
Under Labour’s changes, the number of 42 ICBs is now down to just 25, and in some cases they serve more than four million people. The charity highlights that North East London ICB has only one FLS despite serving around 2.2 million people; argues that this “cannot reasonably be regarded as providing meaningful access across the entire ICB.”
It added that at the Devon and Cornwall ICB, patients in Devon had a “4.5 hour round trip” to reach the only FLS in Truro.
Conservative peer Baroness Altmann said: “It’s just smoke and mirrors, I’m afraid. Ministers have promised universal broken liaison services by 2030. They can no longer redraw NHS boundaries.” [and] pretending that patients have access to care that does not actually exist. It is not possible for a single hospital-based service to provide meaningful access in an NHS region serving three or four million people. Patients deserve treatment, follow-up and honesty, not creative accounting.”
In a letter to Baroness Merron, his Conservative peer Lord Black says: “Administrative restructuring is not implementation. Merging NHS bodies does not create a single new FLS. It does not expand patient access. It does not prevent a single hip fracture.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care told the Sunday Express: “This Government remains committed to introducing fracture contact services by 2030, as set out in our 10 Year Health Plan and Women’s Health Strategy. But we are also taking action by investing in 20 new state-of-the-art DEXA scanners across the country, building on last year’s first wave of 13. These new machines will help diagnose brittle bones earlier and prevent painful, life-changing conditions.” fractures – particularly among older people and women who are disproportionately affected by osteoporosis.”
